A battery technology that was touted nine years ago for notebooks may finally get its day in the sun.

Notebook makers will “likely” soon choose to incorporate lithium polymer batteries over the current commonly used type, lithium ion batteries, Sony battery Electronics President Stan Glasgow said during a meeting with reporters Wednesday.

Lithium polymer batteries use lithium as an active ingredient. Lithium is a volatile material, but the lithium in these batteries isn’t packed into cells as it is in lithium ion batteries. Instead, it is contained in a polymer gel. These gel batteries can’t provide the same sort of energy density as lithium ion batteries, but that’s now a plus.

Manufacturers, and in particular Sony battery, have pushed the energy density (or capacity) of lithium ion batteries. When an internal short occurs, it can set off a chain reaction and start a fire. Dell battery, Lenovo battery, Toshiba, Apple Computer and others, in conjunction with Sony battery, have offered to take back millions of lithium ion batteries shipped with particular notebooks in the past two years.

“There is not too much more power we want to cram into lithium ion,” Glasgow said.

Historically, polymer batteries have not been able to provide the long battery life manufacturers and consumers demand. Mitsubishi put lithium polymer batteries in its ill-fated Pedion notebook in 1997. The notebook sported several design novelties–it was far thinner than contemporary designs and was the first notebook with a shiny metallic chassis–but it cost nearly $ 6,000 and had some mechanical problems.

Despite their struggles, industrial designers have always liked lithium polymer because gel packs can be squeezed into devices’ empty spaces. Lithium polymer has also improved over time. Some manufacturers are using it in phones.

Several companies are responding to the hazards of lithium ion by coming out with nonlithium batteries. Zinc Matrix Power and PowerGenix, for example, are promoting zinc-based batteries for notebooks and other devices. Zinc Matrix says it will start shipping batteries in 2007. Glasgow asserted that that these Asus laptop battery technologies could take a little while to get to market.

“I don’t think anything new is going to be available in the next 12 to 18 months,” he said.

MTI Micro Fuel Cells and others will also try to popularize fuel cells, which harvest battery for HP battery notebooks by passing methanol through a membrane.

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Australia Battery is established to serve the needs of batteries and chargers, australia-battery.com is committed to provide excellence in both product quality and customer service. We offer a 30 day money back guarantee on most products that we sell, and our products carry a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. This means satisfactory resolution of all customer service issues by one of our trained customer service reps. As Australia premier source for Laptop Battery, Laptop AC adapter, Cordless Drill Batteries, Camcorder Battery, Digital Camera Battery and Battery Chargers and so on, our products are selected from top manufacturers. We are committed to going the extra mile to keep you as a satisfied customer!

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Australia Battery is established to serve the needs of batteries and chargers, australia-battery.com is committed to provide excellence in both product quality and customer service. We offer a 30 day money back guarantee on most products that we sell, and our products carry a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. This means satisfactory resolution of all customer service issues by one of our trained customer service reps. As Australia premier source for Laptop Battery, Laptop AC adapter, Cordless Drill Batteries, Camcorder Battery, Digital Camera Battery and Battery Chargers and so on, our products are selected from top manufacturers. We are committed to going the extra mile to keep you as a satisfied customer!

Use and distribution of this article is subject to our Publisher Guidelines
whereby the original author’s information and copyright must be included.